A Pentwater State of Mind

Back at home after spending the last week in Pentwater, Michigan (a small town right on Lake Michigan just south of Ludington). My Dad’s family has been going to Pentwater in one form or another (typically camping) since the late 1950s. For Jackie and me, this past trip represents the 13th consecutive summer we have spent at least a few days in Pentwater — with the last five years constituting an entire week.

In contrast to the other vacation “tradition” our family has attempted to embrace (4 trips to Disney World over the last 13 years), the Pentwater trip, in addition to being the consistent summer trip, is a much more relaxed pace of a vacation. We don’t really plan anything; we hang out with my parents at their campground, we swim, we go to the beach, we do a whole lot of nothing. And for a week, it works.

True story.

For me, the trip has increasingly served or fulfilled two distinct purposes. The first, it provides an opportunity to re-center or re-focus myself. Though never completely disconnected in the modern world of technology and work, the change of pace provides the opportunity for meaningful reflection — thinking about who I am, who I want to be, where I succeed, where I fail, my relationships with my family, my priorities, my goals, and so on.

The view for the end of the pier on the channel between Lake Pentater
and Lake Michigan.

This year was no different. This year what struck me most was how often I came back to the importance of priority management through time management. In simplest terms, how I choose to spend my time should be considered a reflection of my genuine and authentic priorities. Feedback on how that time is spent — from myself and my family — serves as a mirror to understand what is actually being prioritized. If I don’t like what I see in that mirror, more focused time management holds at least part of a solution.

Maia's first hole-in-one.

I also ended up thinking a great deal about family and connection. I cannot think of Pentwater without thinking about family. My Dad’s family has been going there for so long; I’ve been taking trips there during the summer for long, often with multiple aunts and uncles and cousins; even now, when we are there, we often catch one of my cousins just starting or ending their trip to Pentwater with their family. Thus, the annual Pentwater trip always serves as a reminder of family, of belonging to something more than myself. This reminder is one of the reasons I am so thankful we still do the trip with my parents — it provides this opportunity for connection to Maia.

In some ways, it seems obvious that family vacations provide those connections. But there are different types of family vacations, and the ones you take with just your immediate household family is different than ones with extended family. Yet, Pentwater, even if/when the time comes when Jackie, Maia, and I take that trip on our own, will always be different.

Our family picture on the pier our last night. We've taken this picture
every year for the last decade or so.

When we vacation in Pentwater, we’ll never be by ourselves.